My weakness

I really enjoy reading. And as a solitary grad student living reclusively in Woodland, I've been able to do a lot of fun reading this year. Now that it's summer, I can read even more! To avoid spending too much money on books, I try to frequent used bookstores. (I perversely insist on buying and keeping all of my books. No libraries for me! I just really like to have shelves full of books around. It makes me feel learned. And I find it creates a nice atmosphere. For me, at least. Though I must admit I also was really drawn to the dark, gloomy basement of Green Library. It was so awesome!! All of those shelves and shelves of books stretching off in the murky half-light!)

Of course, used bookstores don't always work out. For instance, you should never go to a used bookstore with something specific in mind. Inevitably, they won't have it. And you'll compromise with several other books instead, and still go to the Borders down the street to get what you want new. So you end up spending even more money and buying even more books (arguably) than if you'd just gotten it new in the first place! Or like today. I had a strong need for coffee, but the only non-Starbucks coffee shop I know about in Woodland is associated with a bookstore. A new bookstore. Well clearly I can't go and just get coffee! So I ended up getting 4 new books. Way more than I was planning! And so expensive! Of course, that's because I decided to take the plunge and get the new Harry Potter. $30 for a book, yow!

So I thought I'd document my weakness, and list all the books I've read this year, starting in Fall quarter. Sure, it'll be dull, but I like to keep track of what I've read in this way. Of course, it's bound to be incomplete, since probably a few books have been passed on to Jenny, or left with my dad and I have momentarily forgotten that I've read them. But here goes. A chronicle of my reading exploits, in no particular order beyond their random arrangement on my shelves:

Shame, by Salman Rushdie
I, Claudius, Robert Graves
If on a winter's night a traveler, Italo Calvino
Pnin, Vladimir Nabokov
The Bone People, Keri Hulme
Longitude, Dava Sobel
Claudius the God, Robert Graves
Deep South, Nevada Barr
He, She and It, Marge Piercy
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Ishmael, Daniel Quinn
Cities of Salt, Abdelraman Munif
The Moor's Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
The Lyre of Orpheus, Robertson Davies
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut
The Magician's Assistant, Ann Patchett
The Hundred Secret Senses, Amy Tan
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
Soul Mountain, Gao Xingjian
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Teah us to Outgrow our Madness, Kenzaburo Oe
What's Bred in the Bone, Robertson Davies
The Future of Life, E.O. Wilson

And with very few exceptions, I found them all highly enjoyable.

Wow. That's a lot. Especially when you factor in all the textbooks and articles I also read over that time. Speaking of which, I've started to make a reference library of those articles. So far I've only entered A-E into the reference manager, and already it's just over 100! Gosh, I'm a nerd =D.

Ok, well I'd better get back to my reading. I just finished a book (Teach us to Outgrow our Madness), and have 10 queued up to be read. You'd better make sure that I don't go to any more bookstores for a good long time!